Rentr explains how its business works after industry “confusion”

App-based property management solution Rentr has issued a clarification about how it’s business works after “confusion” within the industry that it appeared to be offering landlords the ability to upload their properties directly to Rightmove and Zoopla.

The issue is a sensitive one as many agents are understandably suspicious of online-only agents because they allow landlords to upload their own listings, which in turn are uploaded to the big national portals via the agent’s feeds.

The problems started when the proptech firm announced last week that it had launched a new web interface that enabled “landlords and tenants to handle all aspects of their residential lets via a computer as well as via [our] app”.

Rightmove and Zoopla

To some agents this sounded like a direct line to Rightmove and Zoopla, particularly because unlike many other online-only agents Rentr separates the price of listing a portal within its ‘suite’ of services – at £15 – and also because its landlords have now been given their own portal to complete each listing.

“We wanted to build a great platform for direct and agency services to allow private, DIY landlords to access the same technologies as letting agents and to be able to access it whenever and wherever required,” Vik Tara, the firm’s co-founder (pictured, above) said last week.

“Each individual can choose the elements that suit their personal circumstances so they can choose how much they rely on letting agents or their own resources.”

Since then Rentr says it has encountered “a little confusion” about this aspect of its new portal for landlords, and wanted to clarify that Rentr landlords are effectively passed on as leads from Rentr Ltd – the technology side of the business – to Rentr Agency Services – one of its agency partners run through Warwickshire-based agency Tara and Co.

The company reiterated that the “advertising is not direct”, a spokesperson told The Negotiator.